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Riding a Bike

Posted 2010-05-07 Tags: None

I've recently entered into a conversation with Mr. Carmichael about bike lanes, sidewalks and roads and where bikes should be. In it, I defended the idea that bikes should be allowed to ride on the sidewalk, but things were confused because of Twitter's 140 character limit. I came across sounding like I completely disapproved of bike lanes, which I don't.

Succinctly:

My reasoning is simple:

I don't propose that these things are mandated. I do propose that cyclists and pedestrians both would have to look out for and respect each other on the sidewalks.

Anecdotally, I feel pretty strongly about not having cyclists on busy roads because I've seen a few cyclists hit by cars (one of which had debilitating head trauma) which are terrible. I've seen a few accidents where cars swerved to avoid cyclists, which can also cause fairly significant injuries. I've seen a few accidents where a cyclist ran into a pedestrain; they apologized and then continued on their way. Like I said, this is all anecdotal; lots of other people have had different experiences.

Edit: A good point was brought up by James in the comments - cyclists do need to recognize that pedestrians have the right of way in any situation.

Unrelated: EAVB_LAPJZGTWPN

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